Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Review of A Leap of Faith by Trisha Ashley - Five **Blurb:Sappho Jones stopped counting birthdays when she reached thirty but, even with her hazy grip on mathematics, she realises that she's on the slippery slope to the big four-oh! With the thought suddenly lodged in her mind that she's a mere cat's whisker away from becoming a single eccentric female living in a country cottage in Wales, she has the urge to do something dramatic before it's too late.

The trouble is, as an adventurous woman of a certain age, Sappho's pretty much been there, done that, got the T-shirt. In fact, the only thing she hasn't tried is motherhood. And with sexy potter Nye on hand as a potential daddy - or at least donor - is it time for her to consider the biggest leap of all? It's either that or buy a cat . . .

Wonderfully wry, heart-warming and life-affirming, Trisha Ashley's hilarious novel is perfect for fans of romantic comedies by Milly Johnson and Jill Mansell. And it contains recipes!

**This novel was originally published in 2001 as The Urge to Jump.**

Review:

I love Trisha's books and this is one of the best! So glad to see it come out again.

Trisha's mastery of the English language is second to none and her descriptive passages are just wonderful! I love Sappho and her friends and their attitude to life (all very different). But being so different meant they worked well together. Sappho's denial of her attraction to Nye was so funny and the way he just ignored it was masterful!

Please buy this and you won't be disappointed. And count how many different names the pub has - I laughed at each and every one!

Friday, 26 August 2016

Review of Return to the Little French Guesthouse by Helen Pollard - Five **Blurb:Blue skies, new love, and a glass of Bordeaux . . . what could possibly go wrong?

When Emmy Jamieson leaves her life behind and moves to La Cour des Roses, a gorgeous guesthouse amidst vineyards in France, everything is resting on her success as the new guesthouse manager.

Looming in the calendar is the biggest booking ever, when the entire eccentric, demanding Thomson family will descend for a golden wedding anniversary. With airbeds on the floor and caravans in the garden, La Cour des Roses will be bursting at the seams.

Emmy knows she’s up to the challenge, especially with the support of the gorgeous Alain, the half-French, half-English, caramel-eyed accountant. But she hadn’t counted on a naked, sleepwalking travel blogger, or the return of owner Rupert’s venomous ex-wife Gloria.

Gloria has a few things to say about Emmy’s new role, Rupert’s finances, and the unsuspecting Alain, which send everybody reeling. Just when Emmy can see a future for herself of endless sunshine, true love and laughter, are her dreams about to be ripped at the seams?

Fans of Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Nick Alexander will want to join Emmy for a glass of wine as the sun sets on the terrace at La Cour des Roses.

Review:

What a fabulous sequel! I fell deeply in love with Les Cours des Roses in the first book and was so happy when the sequel arrived so quickly! It meant I remembered all the characters and what happened in the first book.You can read it as a standalone but it is so much better if you read them in order!

I started reading it in a hospital waiting room, waiting for a blood test. I think the other patients thought I'd lost the plot, I was giggling so much! It is a warm, happy and funny book.

Emmy is back to stay and manage the guesthouse that Rupert owns, after her boyfriend and his wife ran off together. There is a possible new love interest in Alain, the sexy accountant. And all the locals are there in force - especially Mme Dupont - one of my favourite characters!

There are a couple of unexpected twists this time - which add suspense and extra interest to the characters.

Tuesday, 23 August 2016

Welcome to the lovely Liz Harris!! Today is my turn on the blog tour for the wonderful new paperback "The Lost Girl". And this time we get to find out more about Liz and what makes her tick :)

Review of The Lost Girl by Liz Harris - Five **

Blurb:

What if you were trapped between two cultures?Life is tough in 1870s Wyoming. But it’s tougher still when you’re a girl who looks Chinese but speaks like an American.Orphaned as a baby and taken in by an American family, Charity Walker knows this only too well. The mounting tensions between the new Chinese immigrants and the locals in the mining town of Carter see her shunned by both communities.When Charity’s one friend, Joe, leaves town, she finds herself isolated. However, in his absence, a new friendship with the only other Chinese girl in Carter makes her feel like she finally belongs somewhere. But, for a lost girl like Charity, finding a place to call home was never going to be that easy …

Review:

Wow! This book took me all over the place emotionally! Liz describes Wyoming post gold rush so well, I felt as if I was there! And her sensitive handling of the race problems between the white americans and the chinese was remarkable!

I felt so very sorry for Charity - she was Chinese by birth but had been brought up as an American and consequently did not fit in either group. The day she started school had me in tears.

Liz builds the tension towards the end. Who will Charity marry? And what will happen if she chooses Joe? And if she chooses Chen Fai, what will happen to Joe? I couldn't see a solution that didn't end in some sort of violence, Luckily Liz could!

I’m frequently asked where I get my
ideas from, and also what comes first – the story or the characters. Ideas come
from many different places – from overheard conversations, lines of poetry,
real life situations, the media, newspaper and magazine articles and so on. There’s
no one answer: the inspiration for each novel is different. As for which comes
first, the story or the characters, I find it equally hard to say as they so
often grow together, both of them developing from the location.

That makes the location in which the
novel is set, extremely important.

I doubt that there’s anyone reading this
who hasn’t seen Location, Location,
Location, a popular property programme in which two presenters help people
to find the home of their dreams, the premise for the TV programme being that
when you’re considering buying a house, you look first at the location.

I think that deciding upon the location
is a pretty good place to start when you’re writing a book, too. After all, the
location doesn’t just have to be right for the story; ideally it has to
contribute to the story, and to do that, it must offer something meaty to the
author.

My location for The Lost Girl is
Wyoming in the 1870s and 1880s. It’s the third time I’ve set a novel in the
American West, the most romantic of settings, but the first time I’ve located a
book in the southwest of Wyoming. When I was researching Wyoming’s fascinating
history in order to find that ‘something meaty’, I happened upon the tension
that grew between the Chinese and the white miners, and I knew in that moment
that I’d found the time and place for a potentially gripping story line, and a
moving one.

The central family in The Lost Girl lives in Carter Town, a fictional
mining town in the heart of the southwest, an arid area, rich in coal. Although
fictional, Carter Town is based on a real railroad mining town and depicts the
events that took place in that town in the early 1880s.

The more I read about the tension between the
two communities, Chinese and white, the more I thought about identity. Suppose
you looked 100% Chinese in your face, but had an American accent, wore American
clothes, behaved with the openness of an American girl - what would you be, I
wondered: American or Chinese? And from that moment on, my heroine, Charity,
was born.

But how to get Charity into Carter Town,
a town which at the time of her birth, was an all-white mining town, I mused.
Obviously she’d have to be found by someone, I realised, and that someone gave
rise to my hero, Joe Walker.

From that moment on, The Lost Girl started to take shape on
my page. Seven-year-old Joe rescued an orphaned baby girl,
and pleaded with his family for them to keep her. They reluctantly agreed,
thinking that the baby girl could help Joe’s mother with the household chores
when she was older. And thus my story began.

The Lost Girl is a story that grew from the location in which it was set, a story which I
was determined would be true to the period and to the characters who were slowly
evolving in my mind, a story which would engage your emotions and make you keep
on wanting to turn the page.

I hope you agree with me, dear readers,
that it did just this.

Thank you very much for inviting me to be a guest on your blog today; I’ve
thoroughly enjoyed my visit to you.

The Lost Girl is now available to buy as paperback.
Click here for purchasing options:

And now a short biography and some links where you can find out more about the lovely Liz!

About the author:

Liz was born in London and now lives in South
Oxfordshire with her husband. After graduating from university with a Law
degree, she moved to California where she led a varied life, trying her hand at
everything from cocktail waitressing on Sunset Strip to working as secretary to
the CEO of a large Japanese trading company, not to mention a stint as
‘resident starlet’ at MGM. On returning to England, Liz completed a degree in
English and taught for a number of years before developing her writing career.

Liz’s debut novel, The Road Back, won a Book of the
Year Award from Coffee Time Romance in the USA and her second novel A Bargain
Struck was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award.

Friday, 19 August 2016

COVER REVEAL!!!!

It is my privilege to share the gorgeous cover for Heidi Swain's new book, available on

November 17th:

Mince Pies & Mistletoe at The Christmas Market

Blurb:

Ruby has been away at university but now she's back in Wynbridge. With Christmas around the corner, she takes on a stall at the local market, and sets about making it the best Christmas market stall ever. There'll be bunting and mistletoe and maybe even a bit of mulled wine.

But with the new out-of-town superstore just opened, the market is under threat. So together with the other stallholders, Ruby devises a plan to make sure that locals make the Christmas market their first port of call for all their Christmas present needs.

But it's hard to concentrate when she keeps bumping into her ex, Steve - and especially when she realises that her feelings for him are still there.

Join Heidi Swain for some Christmas sparkle - and see who might be under the mistletoe this year...

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

Review of Little Girl Lost by Janet Gover - Five **Blurb:When a little girl goes missing, an entire town comes together to find her ...When Tia Walsh rides into the small town of Coorah Creek on a Harley-Davidson, Sergeant Max Delaney senses that everything about her spells trouble. But Tia's trouble is not all of her own making, and the dangerous past she tried to leave behind is hot on her heels.

Sarah Travers has returned home after three years of college to find that her parents have been keeping a devastating secret. Her childhood crush, Pete Rankin, is facing his own struggle with a harsh reality that will take him away from the girl and the life that he loves.

Tia, Max, Sarah and Pete are all trying to find their future, but when a little girl goes missing in the harsh outback, nothing else matters except finding her safe ...

Review:

I truly wish Coorah Creek was real! There are probably outback towns that are similar, but maybe not inhabited by the world's nicest people!

I was so excited when I got this ARC and couldn't wait to get started. A day later and I'm done :( And feel bereft. I so loved my time with Tia, Max, Sarah and Dan.

A child goes missing and potential romances are put on hold in order to organise a search. Janet conveys the vastness and emptiness of the outback beautifully. She contrasts light and dark so well - both in time and in people.

By the time you finish this book, you will start brushing off the red dust - everything becomes so real when you're immersed in the happenings of the Creek. And I'm always so sad to leave there.

You don't have to have read the others in the series - this works very well indeed as a standalone, but I would recommend you do read the rest as you are missing out big time!

Thanks to Choc Lit & NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.